


Little Tells

by completelyhopeless



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: comment_fic, Gen, angst maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 19:31:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2703863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The smallest things are what get to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Tells

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: _[Any, any, He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart. - Shopgirl - Steve Martin](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/572854.html?thread=80113334#t80113334)_
> 
> This seemed perfect for Natasha in that conversation with Loki. My ability to describe that is far from perfect, though.

* * *

The smallest things are tells.

Natasha knows this. It is why she can turn any conversation the way she wants it to and get information from anyone. She interrogates people in a way that doesn't make sense to anyone except her, and she doesn't care because her method is effective.

She tells Loki that regimes fall every day and she doesn't weep. This is true. It is not the big traumas of life that get to her. She was raised in the Red Room. She has been broken and bent in every way possible, and she does not feel those pains the way others would. They taught her not to feel them.

It is the small things that get to her, the ones that would provoke real tears if she was capable of them. Loki is a trickster god. He is the best at those small little things that she's ever met.

He still gave enough away, and her tears were not real.

The ache in her chest was.


End file.
